


Oak Tree (but good this time)

by RhayneForest



Series: Oak tree (original and rewrite) [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Injury, Eventual Fluff, Genderfluid, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, No Smut, Out of Character, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Rewrite, Roman has a stutter, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:41:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhayneForest/pseuds/RhayneForest
Summary: Patton, Logan and Roman had been friends since childhood.  In their high school years they all went to pursue their own interests but stuck together and hung out on the days they had time by the old oak tree in the town square. It was one of those days in their senior year when an addition to their group changed the course of their final high school year.THIS IS A REWRITE
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil & Creativity | Roman & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Oak tree (original and rewrite) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795795
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Roman woke in the morning to his screeching alarm warning him that he only had ten minutes before Remus drove off without him and he'd have to walk all the way to school in the pouring rain with his book bag just unzipped enough for his papers to get wet and rip when he was trying to turn it in so the teacher who already thinks that he never does his work gives him a detention on the same day as environmental club was voting for president making it impossible for him to be in the running, not that he's complaining. Luckily he was quick enough to pull on his jeans and a polo chosen the night before, brush his teeth and run out the front door with his bag and tripping over his hoodie halfway on his arm to reach the car before Remus could start it. The fifteen minute drive was painfully long, loud mumbling music Remus had insisted was ‘rap’, probably busting the speakers they had just fixed a week ago along with his eardrums.  
School had finally started up again. Roman had felt as if he would drop dead if he were forced to spend another second alone with his brother at $$$. He has worked at the same cafe for two years and of course when Remus had been fired from Dick’s their mom forced him to use his tiny pull to gain a job for his ‘poor poor’ brother. Though now that school is back in session Remus has lost all his free time in between basketball practice and college applications to take Romans job. Thank God! They had been sharing things for their whole lives; their car, their old flip-phone, they even had to share a womb. There was no way that Roman would have let Remus take another one of his only places of solace away.  
Lucky Roman still had a few things that Remus could never take from him; the old curving oak tree standing alone at the top of the hill in the town square and the people who stood under it with him. When he was little his family would go up to the park had once stood there, letting the twins loose to play and swing on the rusted old playset with their cousins. Roman was only ever close to one of his cousins though Logan, the cousin closest to his age.  
Logan was a year older than Roman but never held it over his head like little kids usually did. The two of them were basically inseparable on those warm summer days at the park. They would sit in a shady spot and Logan would talk for hours needing no input from anyone and Roman would listen to his exicitible words for as long as he could. But, something changed when Logan's parents started keeping him up at night screaming till morning. Roman would stay with Logan on those nights, just holding his sobbing cousin in his arms as the adults fought. Soon Logan's rants had died down and he finally stopped confiding in Roman at all.  
A year of torturous silence had passed before Logan was sent to Roman's while his parents settled their divorce. Over the course of those four months Logan only said five words to Roman.  
He would sit in silence at every meal, cleaning his plate and placing it in the sink before heading to bed. He would sleep in Roman and Remus's room on the nights he was able to close her eyes and not hear the whispers of screaming in his head. He would sit between the twins, tears racking his head and crying out apologies. He would wish every night that this was all a dream and that he would wake up to his dad making pancakes while his mom checked over his homework and kissed him good morning, but every morning she was greeted with the same room and the same caked on tears that had lulled him to sleep the night before.  
His dad won the majority of the custody agreement, all weekdays and every other weekend.  
It took a lot of time and support, but eventually Logan's life was back to as close to normal as it could be. His dad would wake him up with pancakes and quickly scan over his homework as he buzzed around getting ready for work, and Logan slowly began to talk in full sentences again.  
On a windy spring afternoon after a long day at school Roman's older sister, Zoey chaperoned the kids on their daily walk to the park where her mother would pick them up. Remus ran off to the playground as Roman and Logan sat on the hill going over their times tables when a young girl screamed and fell out of the tree behind them.  
Patt was an incredibly energetic young girl, she always won in their games of tag and danced around the park where the only music to accompany her was her loud out of tune humming. The group of second graders began to play under the oak tree nearly every day, especially after finding out that Roman lived along the same street as Patton and her family.  
Patton had a total of four younger sisters and was always in charge of them all. Her mother was never home during the day and Patt had said that she “loves kids so much she keeps havin’em even though she lost my papa a long time ago and can’t take care of us all so well.”  
Years went by and they never stopped their routine of meeting at their oak. They stuck to each other like glue, supporting each other whenever one fell. They didn't leave Logan when he came out as gay. They didn't leave Patt after they found their true gender. They didn't leave Roman when he showed interest in animals and the environment to the point of obsession nor when Logan and Patton found new meaning in their relationship. It seemed like nothing could tear the three friends away from their tree nor from each other. Their senior year seemed to be no different.  
Logan and Patton met Roman at the front of the school, excitedly conversing as if they hadn't spent the whole previous night facetiming each other. When Roman finally joined the couple, they began walking the familiar halls, stopping at each person's locker and splitting off to their individual advisory classes, not to see each other again until lunch.

(Bringing back the ol' Time Skip)

The lunchroom was bustling so much students could barely hear one another talking even when they sat directly beside them. Even so, an enthusiastic, "Hey, guys!" rose over the crowd, ringing into Patton and Logan's ears.  
“Sorry I'm so late, the uh, the environmental club wanted to talk to me." Roman took his usual seat across from the couple as he apologized.  
"It's no problem, Roman." Logan's voice, strong and absolute, calmed Roman from the stream of apologies that would have escaped him if he hadn't spoken up."We were just thinking of seeing a movie tomorrow." Logan continued, before biting into an apple, punctuating his sentence more than intended.  
"It's called 'Attic', ‘spost to be super creepy." Patton added using the deepest and raspy voice she could muster from her usual gentle squeak just to return to her laughing, bubbly self "You coming with us?"  
Ro sat as if in deep thought, hand resting on his chin stroking his scruff he had forgotten to shave as if it was a long lumberjack-like beard before replying to Logan's roll of the eyes. Motioning with his baby carrot stick at his two friends, teasing them, "I don't know? I wouldn't want to third wheel on your date." Roman bit his carrot with a pop before bursting into laughter at his friends' groans. "No... I mean do you really expect my parents would, that my parents would let me see an R rated movie?"  
Logan nodded in understanding before Patton could groan a complaint, "Ugh, Why can't they just let up on you for one night? You're nearly eighteen, you can handle a horror movie." Roman chuckled at the argument before waving it off. "Not all parents let their kids come and go all the time. Like, I don't know, to their boyfriend's place where there is zero supervision."  
"Don't patronize me," Patton glared at her friend sitting across from her as she waited for Logan to correct her usage of the word that Patton had only heard once.  
"Well, I guess Ro was right about it being a date, then?" Logan ruffled his partner's strawberry blonde locks and shot her a rare lopsided smile that has never failed to cheer her up. He proceeded to fall back, barely catching himself when Patton leaped onto her Latina partner squeezing his short chubby body into a tight hug.  
Soon, the three friends had to go to their classes, leaving before the final lunch bell rang, to beat the usual flood of students.

(I have no idea how to write without Time Skips)

Roman's day went on like all first days in the past, a blur of syllabi, teacher introductions that try to convince the class that they're 'just like you', and PowerPoint projects about himself that are all just a copy from the years before with new pictures. Thankfully his last class wasn't complete torture, agriculture was always one of his easier classes, and not only because his teacher already knew him from the environmental club and Ro had grown comfortable with him along the past four years. Mr. H passed out the silibus for the year and told the class a bit about himself, "I'm Mr. Haroutunian, but you can call me Mr. H because my name is impossible to remember," hopping onto the long desk in the front of the room the young teacher sat with a bored smile and equally monotone voice, "Welcome to Agriculture II. I recognize a few of you already, and those that I don't have probably already introduced themselves enough for today, so I'll just let you be for now."  
Mr. H continued a small introduction to the class before pulling up the last of his syllabi, "Now I know you can all read, otherwise I don't know how you got here, but I'm required to go over this," a choir of groans engulfed the room including Roman’s as nearly every syllabus is the same as the one before and he had already heard five read out in detail. "I'm sorry, I know it sucks. Don't worry, I'll do it quickly. Then you can go back to your conversations of all your summer breakdowns and crises." Mr. H stayed true to his word and sped through the syllabus in under five minutes, but he then took the next thirty to show where everything is and what each thing is for. By the time the bell rang half of the students were asleep resting their heads on their bookbags. The bell struck the class like a bolt of lightning, suddenly it came alive with the stomping, talking, and laughing of rushing students frantically unzipping and zipping their bags.  
As the noise from the hallway spilled into the classroom and the students did the opposite, Roman gripped his bag and gently slipped his binder into it, in an attempt to be more organized this year knowing that he’ll end up with a nest of papers at the bottom of his locker by the end of the week. A familiar voice sprang up from the crowded hall followed by light childish laughter and Ro was out the door greeting Logan and the girl latching onto his back, “What the hell happened in your class?”  
Patton released her hold on Logan only to grip his hand just as hard skipping along the hallway, “Mrs. Rolly-Polly let us pick our own lab partners. We’re gonna sit together for the rest of this entire semester.”  
“That is if Mrs. Rolling isn't too strict on her no talking rule,” Logan grinned at his partner’s antics as they reached their cluster of lockers, the halls already nearly empty of the students speeding to leave the hellhole many call school, “You got the keys today?” The pounding noise of skin on metal broke them from their thoughts as they each turned to look at the imposing man and his dark glare. "No he doesn't," Remus held out his hand in wait, "Don't think I forgot. You had it all last week." With a groan that could rival that on the other end of a 'hey hungry, I'm dad' joke Roman slammed the twin's shared keys into his hand.  
Remus kept the keys for the entirety of the next week and half, until Ro complained to their mother about his trek to work and walk home and compared it to Remus's trip home that could easily be a carpool with the neighbor, after which Roman got the car for a solid week.

(But hey, Time Skips are fun)

Patton sat on a branch 5 feet off the ground, picking at the hemmed edge of his skirt. Roman and Logan sat on the grass looking over homework for their shared classes.  
"Why did I wear a skirt?" Patton wined out as he threw his legs over the edge of the branch kicking his feet, barely missing his boyfriend's bun.  
"Because you were a female earlier, Patt." Logan didn't look up, invested in the poem he was supposed to be analyzing. Patton sighed about to jump down to let Logan borrow his water, his voice being noticeably horace from his usual mixture of debate club and screaming at teachers along the week, but before he could a torn page of a notebook flew through the wind. Patton noticed it and immediately threw his entire body at it, bringing the paper down with him. The THUD of the ground hitting their friend alerted Roman and Logan to jump up and run over to the other who was now sitting on the ground staring at the paper that he managed to leap onto.  
"Oh my God! Patton are you okay!?" Roman screamed as his knees hit the ground next to his friend. "Hmm? Oh, yeah." Patton waved off his friend before motioning to the page coated in a beautiful sketch of the tree they had sat around and a detailed faced figure leaning against it.  
After a few moments of intrigue Roman sputtered out what they had all been thinking, "Is- is that? That’s me?" Pointing out the long curly haired, sketched boy leaning peacefully against the trunk of the oak.  
Right as he mentioned it a loud voice, not yelling, not screaming, just a loud voice cried out from the bottom of the hill,  
“Hey!”


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey!”  
They each looked up to see a man no younger than themselves with long, umber-like hair covering nearly half his flushed face jogging over to them. Almost ripping off Logan’s left arm, Patton waved down the boy, “Hey, I know you from somewhere.” With the drawing in hand and eyes simmering with curiosity, Logan asked the boy if he had drawn it. After the boy nodded carefully and got his drawing back he whimpered   
“I’m Ash.”  
Patton, taking in the boy before him, slapped his forehead with his palm.“...Oh! You're in my dance class, that's how I know you. I thought your name was” Patton stopped noticing Ash's constricting pupils and pursed lips, “Ashlyn. Do you go by Ash then, not Lyn?” Logan stared at Patton in disbelief, “You’re just realizing this now?” Patton gave a convincingly ignorant shrug leading Logan to introduce himself. “I’m Logan, and he’s an idiot,” he motioned to Patton rearing an over exaggerated pout then to Roman, “That’s Roman.”  
Ash stood in confusion before taking a glance at the figure walking towards the group, and freezing in place. Roman moved in for a handshake but quickly retracted his hand when Ash swung his long paw-like sleeved arm behind his back. “You can call me Ro if you want,” Ash looked up with a shy smile and nodded softly before looking back down to his custom Converse. Roman tried to cover up the stiff tension that he had accidentally created, “I like your drawing.”  
“Oh?”  
Ash seemed to be surprised to get a compliment, looking between the friends and glancing down at his drawing. Seemingly just realizing what he had drawn, his pale complection turned as red as the painted roses on his converse.   
“I’m sorry, I shouldn't have drawn you without your permission. Oh god I'm so sorry. I probably just creeped you out so much, I'm sorry.”   
Ash continued on rambling off apologies until Roman cut him off, “It’s ‘Ash’ right?” The boy in question stopped and looked back to the ground, nodding. “Right, Ash, it's okay. I said I liked it. And I do, it's really good.” Roman paused and said in a much quieter tone, “and I swear I'm not just a narcissist.” He chuckled at the quiet boy's smile spreading across his pale face.  
Logan broke the silence that Ash and Roman had created with a conversation about Ash’s drawing skills and why they haven't seen him around before.   
Apparently, he had just moved from the town over in early June and all of his classes were in the advanced building. Ash spoke sparsely throughout the conversations, eyes darting from person to person as they talked under the same tree he had been so drawn to the day before. When Patton and Logan had to go home they left announcing that they wanted to hang out with him again and nudging Roman to get her number.  
After they left Ash and Roman talked for nearly an hour longer. Ash laughed at all of Roman’s corny jokes and whenever Ash laughed Roman smiled just a bit wider. They talked about their similar interests in series’ debating the difference of the books and show as well as the other drawings in Ash's sketch book. He seemed to talk more openly when it was just the two of them.  
They had been joking and talking when Ash’s phone startled the two as it began to sound an uncontrollable and unreasonably loud alarm. Ash’s bright eyes dulled, his soft innocent smile fell to a frown in a way that would only be noticed by the sharpest of eyes. Apologizing for leaving he ran in a hurry back in the direction he had come from hours before. Roman sat back and sighed before noticing the drawing from earlier resting next to him. He picked up the paper and turned it over to find neat cursive writing;  
You said you liked it so, why don't you stay true to the narcissist you know you are. Keep it.  
-Ash  
P.S. I heard Logan telling you to get my number. You didn't ask, wuss, here it is anyway. 605-475-6968  
____________  
At the beginning of lunch a few weeks later Patton had sat down across from Roman in the courtyard pressing a soft kiss onto their boyfriend's cheek and asked why there was an extra seat next to Ro. Roman revealed to them that from here on out Ash would be joining them for lunch before standing up and waving at the pale boy in the corner sitting alone on the grass and calling him over.  
Ash weaved through the chaos with an increasingly ridiculous amount of apologies over to the table of friends and quietly sat down with a soft tug of his lips indicating a smile aimed towards Roman. Logan and Patton looked to each other in mutual understanding. Roman has had his fair share of secret and not-so-secret admirers and anyone with eyes could see why. If a person with deep chocolate eyes sparkling with as much gold as a child’s tutu and a perfectly imperfect straight teeth, never braced smile pushing slight dimples into chestnut-like skin were to walk up to you in all of their six-foot-two glory just to stumble over his words asking for a pencil, you’d understand the amount of devotees Roman holds. Especially if said person is irifudibly flirting with their entire arsonal.  
The group ended up conversing about their clubs and the elective courses that they had chosen over the last four years. Roman expressed his love for community service and animals in addition to his job at the cafe downtown. Logan revealed his list of academic and educational clubs and how he had finally noticed that he was falling for Patton in their shared band class, while said excitable teen squealed at their partner's “story as sweet as sugar” and spoke about their dance and gymnastics teams while shoveling food into their mouth at an inhuman speed.  
When they asked Ash to reveal his list he reluctantly pushed herself into revealing his dance, and theater lessons. The couple across from him’s mouths gaped at the seemingly impossible reality that this boy that they have known for over a week now, still barely spoke and on the rare occasion that he did his voice was so quiet you'd have to rely on mouth reading even if in an empty room, was doing such extroverted tasks in his free time.  
With that revelation the group grew more open to Ash about their personal lives. The beginning of lunch Roman would talk about which animal was adopted from the shelter he volunteered at over the weekends and complain about how there were no recycling bins or too much wasted paper and plastic in the school. Later Ash would excitedly show them all the newest play or sound track or album he had been obsessing over, while Patton would listen intently to Logan’s rambling about their fellow students. After school each friend would stop by the tree if possible. On the days where all of their schedules coincided they would sit in and around the creaking old oak and study and talk and laugh. Logan would complain about his clubs and how he never got a say, “...even though I am obviously the smartest person in there”. Patton would let out their frustrations with their coaches and family. Ash would doodle, faintly humming along with the song that had been stuck in his head that day. Roman would stumble over terrible jokes at each and every turn and shame the others for their irresponsibility.  
On top of all this, Patton and Logan used their combined powers of annoyance to relentlessly tease, pressure, and plead Roman to, “just ask him out, already,” every day until he finally gave in.  
In the last five minutes of lunch Logan left to go to his class on the other side of school and Patton ventured off to use the restroom. Leaving Roman alone with Ash once again. “Hey, Ash,” Roman spoke softly, as if he didn't want him to hear, “would you, I mean you don't have to, but would you wanna, or like, I guess, would you like to go to the movies on Friday or something? With me, that is.”  
Roman was responded to with Ash’s hazel eyes looking up at him in shock, “I…I can’t, wait,” he quickly pulled out his phone from his back pocket. Searching through the apps he looked back up at Roman who had been fiddling with the hem of his ‘I shih tzu not’ tee-shirt.  
“I have to work that day, but I can on, Saturday? Yeah Saturday,”   
Ash pressed his phone into the open hand of the boy next to him, his phone displaying his calendar of which every day was filled to the brim with reminders, alarms, and scheduling, that is everyday but one. Saturday had exactly three hours open of which would fit a movie perfectly.  
“Six oclock sounds good. I'll check for showings then,” Ro nodded and passed Ash’s phone back to him searching his pocket for his own, “Where do you live?”  
“No,”   
Ash blurted out voice surprisingly over two decibels right before the bell rang out, signaling the end of lunch,   
“We should just meet up. I, I mean I live too far out, no reason to go out of your way. Yeah, yeah we’ll do that. Looking forward to it! ”   
Ash frantically sped around picking up his and the others’ mess tripping over his feet and tongue running out of the courtyard with his ragged black bag slung over his shoulder with the one strap not being held on with duct tape.


End file.
